This Date in Baseball - Aug. 2

Published 9:00 pm, Wednesday, July 31, 2002

1906 _ The "Hitless Wonder" Chicago White Sox began their AL record 19-game winning streak with a 3-0 win over Boston. The record would be tied only by the 1947 New York Yankees.

1907 _ Walter Johnson made his major-league debut with the Washington Senators and lost 3-2 to the Detroit Tigers. The first hit he ever yielded was a bunt single by Ty Cobb. The Tigers beat "The Big Train" 7-6 exactly 20 years later on Walter Johnson Day in the nation's capital.

1933 _ Mickey Cochrane of the Philadelphia A's hit for the cycle in a 16-3 win over the New York Yankees.

1938 _ The Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals used a yellow baseball in the first game of a doubleheader as an experiment. The two teams went back to the white ball in the second game as the Dodgers swept the doubleheader 6-2 and 9-3.

1959 _ Bill Bruton of Milwaukee hit three triples, including two with the bases-loaded, to lead the Braves to an 11-5 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the nightcap of a doubleheader.

1979 _ New York Yankees captain Thurman Munson died in the crash of his private plane while practicing takeoffs and landings at Canton, Ohio, airport.

1987 _ Kevin Seitzer went 6-for-6, hit two homers and drove in seven runs, to pace a 20-hit Kansas City attack as the Royals beat the Boston Red Sox 13-5 in 102-degree heat.

1987 _ Eric Davis led off the bottom of the 11th inning with his 30th home run of the season, to give the Cincinnati Reds a 5-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants. Davis's homer made him the seventh _ and earliest player in major-league history _ with 30 homers and 30 steals in the same season.

1998 _ The Cuban national team claimed its 22nd gold medal at the World Baseball Championships, beating South Korea 7-1 and extending its winning streak at the event to 41 games since 1986.